1. Technical Field
Example embodiments relate generally to storage devices, and more particularly to data management methods and storage devices performing the data management methods.
2. Description of the Related Art
Certain types of data storage devices comprise one or more semiconductor memory devices. Examples of such data storage devices include solid state drives (SSDs). These types of data storage devices may enjoy various design and performance advantages over conventional hard disk drives (HDDs). Examples of potential advantages include the absence of moving mechanical parts, higher data access speeds, improved stability and durability, and low power consumption, to name but a few. These types of data storage devices usually include nonvolatile memory devices, e.g., flash memories. In a flash memory of an SSD, if it is required to update previous data that is already written into the flash memory, the previous data in a storage space of the flash memory may be invalidated, and updated data may be written into another storage space of the flash memory. Further, in an SSD, as the amount of invalid data increases, a data compaction operation or a garbage collection operation should be performed for collecting used storage space that stores the invalid data (e.g., for changing the used storage space to a free storage space).